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Manga Monday: How to Draw a Kiss

A manga kiss isn’t easy to draw and, as far as poses go, it’s not one you’re going to draw on every page. But if you’re creating a love story, you can’t afford a cruddy drawing when the big moment finally does arrive. So check out some tips from Mastering Manga with Mark Crilley and get yourself ready, because she’s going to plant one on him and you’re going to draw it!

DEMONSTRATION: MANGA KISS

Step One: Build Your Frame
Draw two circles, one much lower on the page than the other. (I’ve added dotted lines to help you see the relationship between the two circles.) The circles need to be this exact distance from each other. Add the two curving lines touching the circles, carefully replicating their angles and locations within their respective circles. Finally, add the arching line to the lower right of the circle on the left. This will help you draw the girl’s face in the next step.

Step Two: Outline Her Features
Draw the outline of her nose and jaw. This is difficult but vital to get right. It touches the circle a little less than midway between the dotted lines. The tip of the nose meets the outer arching line. Then, her eye is just inside the circle, touching it, and the eyebrow sweeps back and down from near—but not touching—where her nose meets her forehead.

Draw the outline of her ear, not quite touching the circle, lining up the top with her eyebrow.

Step Three: Outline His Features
She’s obscuring most of his profile so you won’t have to deal with that. Still, the angles of his jaw and nose lines have to be right. His jaw lines up with his ear line and meets hers. His nose line sits higher on the page, pointed down toward the girl. Use the tip of her nose like a pointer to place his eye.

Step Four: Sketch In The Hair
No need to follow what I’ve done here, give them both crew cuts if you like! But if you do want the classic manga look, notice how the contours of the hair are a certain distance from the circles you drew in step one. Follow too closely to those circles and your characters’ heads will appear too small by manga standards.

Step Five: Give Them Bodies

He’s leaning into her, so the line of his body should curve slightly. Her shoulder is pulled up and her face angled, which puts it much closer to her ear and she’s leaning backwards.

Step Six: Fine-Tune
Add folds to the clothing. Give him a shirt collar and add details to the hair.

Step Seven: Finish It
Ink it up, let it dry and erase away the guidelines.

Mark Crilley is the author and illustrator of several graphic novel and prose fiction book series including 13-time Eisner nominee Akiko, Billy Clikk, Miki Falls and Brody’s Ghost. Since being selected for Entertainment Weekly’s “It List” in 1998, Crilley has spoken at hundreds of venues throughout the world and has become one of YouTube’s top 25 Most Subscribed Gurus, creating drawing demonstration videos that have been viewed more than sixty million times. His work has been featured in USA Today, the New York Daily News and Disney Adventures magazine, as well as on Comcast On Demand and CNN Headline News.